25th May 2007 - Podcasting Day

S3 Students recently took part in a French Podcasting Day at Doon Academy. The event was organised jointly by the Modern Languages Department at Doon, headed by Mrs Anita Neilson, Acting Principal Teacher and Partners in Excellence Coordinators Mark Pentleton and Kay McMeekin.
In the first part of the morning session, students were shown how to compose, record and edit a radio broadcast (podcast), before moving onto the next stage of actually creating their own podcast. The French Assistante, Anne Campan, was there to lend a hand, as was Mrs. Iris Smith from the Modern Languages Department.
In the afternoon session, students were also given a Language Challenge. They had to listen to a podcast in a completely new language, and then present this to the rest of the Group. Prizes were given to each student who gave a presentation. Mrs Neilson and Head Teacher, Patrick O’Rourke, praised all the Students for taking part with great enthusiasm in such an innovative project in modern languages learning.
To hear the finished podcast, log onto: http://www.doon.e-ayr.sch.uk (and go into the French Dept. page).

Survey of Achievement
The Scottish Survey of Achievement is trying to find out what pupils from across Scotland can do. The focus this year was on science and selected S2 science pupils from Doon Academy were involved in the survey. Pupils took part in a variety of practicals, assessments and writing tasks. Two field officers also visited the school to interview pupils.

Leadership
Our S3 Leadership graduates made a presentation on our leadership programme to visitors from Braeview Academy in Dundee. The visitors were very impressed not just by our programme but by the quality of the presentation and the confidence displayed by our pupils. Our leadership programme is achieving national recognition through Schools of Ambition, and East Ayrshire is also looking closely at it with a view to providing something similar to all other East Ayrshire secondary schools.